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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22956700">No time to process</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Two_Sour_Noodles/pseuds/Two_Sour_Noodles'>Two_Sour_Noodles</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Undertale (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Horrortale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Horrortale Papyrus (Undertale), Horrortale Sans (Undertale), Hurt/Comfort, I SWEAR THIS IS GONNA BE DIFFERENT, No Romance, There will be violence, This is me trying to give reader a sort of realistic reaction to au hopping, Underfell Papyrus (Undertale), Underfell Sans (Undertale), Underswap Papyrus (Undertale), Underswap Sans (Undertale), also, although the first couple of chapters look like something cliche, and then, but it's not gonna be mentioned or explored, hoo boy, maaaaaybe mutual pining, reader ain't gonna be okay, the events are too quick and she doesn't get a chance to process until later, this is gonna start out strange yet predictable, uh</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 12:20:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,207</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22956700</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Two_Sour_Noodles/pseuds/Two_Sour_Noodles</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>You're trapped in an endless cycle of meeting skeletons you love but don't know you, trying to explain yourself, only to meet the next pair of skeletons.</p><p>You're stuck, you're helpless, and nothing is in your control. You're never going to settle down.</p><p>You hate this.</p><p>... It gets better.</p><p>-------------</p><p>A take on AU hopping and the effect it has on the people involved.</p><p>Dropped</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Papyrus (Undertale) &amp; Reader, Sans (Undertale) &amp; Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Let's start</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>In which the author doesn't give reader a break.</p><p>Hello!</p><p>I'm actually really nervous about posting this because I feel like people are going to judge this book by its cover (heh) and won't read this because, au hopping, again?<br/>i just had this really angsty idea and I fell in love with it and i felt the need to write it ;;<br/>This is the type of story to slowly unfold, so, bear with me in these first couple of chapters!</p><p>soon things will head south</p><p>enjoy, and thank you for reading!</p>
    </blockquote><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Odd.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sans feels weird.<br/>
<br/>
Extremely weird.<br/>
<br/>
He hadn’t woke up this way in a very long time. He knows this because he’s been waking up the same way every day ever since the kid first fell underground, and it kept happening again and again.<br/>
<br/>
In short, you can give this cycle a gentle name: Routine. Today, it has been broken.<br/>
<br/>
It wasn’t anything major. In the past few hundred resets, Papyrus would wake Sans up by lifting his blanket and saying, “Good morning, Sans! It’s time to wake up!”<br/>
<br/>
Today, however, Papyrus woke Sans up by lifting the blanket and saying, “Rise and shine, brother! We have to go to work!“<br/>
<br/>
Similar. But so different.<br/>
<br/>
Sans, to put it simply, is thrown off.<br/>
<br/>
The cycle broke. What happened? Why?<br/>
<br/>
But maybe he's too paranoid. Maybe he's too used to this one consistent thing. Maybe in the last run, Frisk did something that slightly altered the start of this one. Maybe he's going insane and his brother didn't change, but this is the first hallucination Sans will experience that will be the start of a completely different life.<br/>
<br/>
<em>Eh</em>.<br/>
<br/>
He continues normally, punning at his bro, watching him leave for patrol, teleporting to Hotland, and taking a nap.<br/>
<br/>
Except when he arrived at his station, there was a human laying in front of it, unconscious. Not Frisk.<br/>
<br/>
Definitely not a normal day.<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
You feel weird.<br/>
<br/>
Extremely weird.<br/>
<br/>
You feel as if you're not in your bed. So odd...<br/>
<br/>
Your eyes snap open.<br/>
<br/>
<em>This is not your bed. And this is certainly not your bedroom</em>.<br/>
<br/>
Oh god. Oh no. Are you kidnapped? Did you sleepwalk? Is this a prank? <em>Kidnapped</em>?<br/>
<br/>
Oh god—<br/>
<br/>
You sit upright, and quickly take in your surroundings. May- Maybe you know this place. Maybe it's a really bad prank?<br/>
<br/>
Bare mattress, brown walls, a zig-zag pattern on the carpet, wooden desk, one window, treadmill... and a lot of socks.<br/>
<br/>
You... Don't remember entering a room like this before, but the stuff in the room... It's as if you've been in this room, but you most definitely haven't. It's a wild feeling.<br/>
<br/>
You take a moment to look at the room and it's content again, trying to pinpoint this weird and vague memory that you <em>know </em>you haven't experienced before.<br/>
<br/>
A room with a treadmill in the middle. A room with a bare mattress on the floor, with socks thrown everywhere and some—<br/>
<br/>
Some self-sustaining trash tornado.<br/>
<br/>
At that moment, something clicked.<br/>
<br/>
There's a certain video game character that you obsess over. A certain skeleton who you read every fanfiction you find where the reader is shipped with him. He has a great brother, and their fans made many alternate versions of them. You even doodled him so many times, that by now you have him memorized by heart, and your heart thinks about him all the time.<br/>
<br/>
It... no? It can't be true. It can't. That's some fictional video game character. This is reality.<br/>
<br/>
Or is it?<br/>
<br/>
A shiver travels down your back. No. This is either a sick joke, or...<br/>
<br/>
Or what?<br/>
<br/>
You don't know...<br/>
<br/>
You feel surreal. You feel like you're disconnecting. You don't get it. Is this real? No, it's not. But it feels real. And how is that tornado happening? Hologram?<br/>
<br/>
Ever since you woke up, you felt dizzy. And now that dizzying fog is swarming violently inside your head.<br/>
<br/>
You notice a note not too far from you, and you pick it up.<br/>
<br/>
It says ‘brb’, written in something that looks like the handwritten version of Comic Sans.<br/>
<br/>
You start thinking, and the idea that this is a kidnapping becomes surreal, while the idea that this video game reality settles in.<br/>
<br/>
This... is scary. And confusing.<br/>
<br/>
... and... exciting?<br/>
<br/>
You... You're in a video game. You're in a video game! In Sans' room!<br/>
<br/>
A laugh starts to bubble from inside you. Oh my god! <em>You’re in Sans’ room</em>!<br/>
<br/>
Out of any place you could've gone to, you went to your favorite character's room! On his bed! No way!!<br/>
<br/>
You’re smiling so hard your cheeks hurt!<br/>
<br/>
Holding the blanket you woke up with, you realized something- Did Sans put you here? Sans, the secretive skeleton? That's so...<br/>
<br/>
Something shifts in the air, and you can't believe your eyes.<br/>
<br/>
Sans.<br/>
<br/>
He’s holding some papers, and he seems surprised to see you awake.<br/>
<br/>
“Oh my god!” you squeal, and stand up very quickly, stepping into his personal space, “You're real!”<br/>
<br/>
“uh.” He steps back, and you step forward.<br/>
<br/>
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god—” Oh my god! “Y- Okay, do you- I don't know if you know me, some weird multiverse shenanigans and- Oh my god, Sans, you're my abso- my favourite character ever?!” You're so excited, this is so wild, holy crap it's Sans!<br/>
<br/>
“hello to you too,” he strains out, stepping back again.<br/>
<br/>
You step forward, unconsciously, “Dude— Oh my god, I love you?”<br/>
<br/>
“thanks, but it's funny,” he lowers his head, “you act as if you know me, heh, 'cause i sure don't know you.” He says, and that's when you realize that his eyelights aren't there.<br/>
<br/>
Sans is uncomfortable.<br/>
<br/>
You step back, but his shoulders still seem tense.<br/>
<br/>
“listen, bud,” he starts, “let's start over a bit more calmly, 'k?” He puts his hands in his pockets —where did his papers go?— and smiles, dim eyelights looking you in the eye, “not that i mind loud people, but, heh, we might wanna finish things faster, yeah?“<br/>
<br/>
Finish what faster?<br/>
<br/>
He didn't give you a chance to reply, “heya there, strange human. i'm sans, sans the skeleton. but you already knew that?” He says, suspicion subtly appearing on his features.<br/>
<br/>
“Oh, yeah, uh— I’m y/n, and uh," you wring your fingers, "Can I explain something?"<br/>
<br/>
“sure, i have time," he replies.<br/>
<br/>
“Okay, so,” you draw a blank. You're confused about your own situation, what are you supposed to explain?<br/>
<br/>
Explain how you know him, you idiot!<br/>
<br/>
“Right! So! You.”<br/>
<br/>
“me.”<br/>
<br/>
“Yes, you, I know you. You're Sans Undertale.” He looks at you strangely, and you catch yourself, “Sans <em>from</em> Undertale. The— the video game. Uh, there's this really popular video game called Undertale, and you're a really popular character from that game. And I know many things about you.”<br/>
<br/>
You pause. Wow, way to be creepy.<br/>
<br/>
“Wait, listen! Okay, uh, do you read fanfiction?” <em>Wrong question</em>. “You know how there's this one sci-fi trope where multi-dimensional hopping occurs and time and space shenanigans happen? And sometimes in those books, there's this really creepy character that knows everything else about these other characters? I think- I think I'm that character!”<br/>
<br/>
He blinks twice.<br/>
<br/>
“wow.” He says, “that sure is something.“<br/>
<br/>
What...<br/>
<br/>
What does that even <em>mean</em>?!<br/>
<br/>
Is he suspicious of you? You wouldn't blame him! Is he processing the information? Is he taking that information well? Wait- Did you break the game?! No, Undertale characters break the fourth wall all the time.<br/>
<br/>
He continues, “we’ll check on that theory soon. for now, i’ll leave to do just that, ‘k? see ya,” he says, and with that, he disappears.<br/>
<br/>
His existence makes two ideas stand strong.<br/>
<br/>
One, you're crazy. You're absolutely <em>nuts</em>. This is either a dream or you've gone insane. Two...<br/>
<br/>
Holy crap. <em>This is real. </em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Water</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>What...<br/><br/>You stare into the empty space that Sans used to stand in just a few minutes ago.<br/><br/>You... really made him uncomfortable...<br/><br/>... He probably hates you.<br/><br/>Why are you here? What’s your purpose? Do you just... live here now? Is this permanent, or temporary? What are you going to do now?<br/><br/>Why you?<br/><br/>It can’t be because you’re a powerful mage or something, right? You don’t feel... like you have <em>magic</em>, or anything... And it’s definitely not because of your love for Undertale, because there’s always someone who loves it more...<br/><br/>You feel lost. Confused.<br/><br/>Being here <em>must</em> mean something. No one just... enters a fictional world and just <em>exist</em>. Maybe you’re here to fix a glitch.<em> Or maybe you caused it— </em>You hold your breath.<br/><br/><em>Hopefully not the latter, god.</em><br/><br/>Maybe—<br/><br/>A knock on the door startles you. Wait, what?<br/><br/>“HELLO, HUMAN!” A loud voice booms through the door. <em>Papyrus?! Is that Papyrus’ voice? </em>“I WAS EAVESDROPPING ON YOUR EARLIER CONVERSATION AND I CAN’T HELP BUT CHECK ON YOU!”<br/><br/>“I’d- Uh-” <em>Open the door</em>! “Sure! Yeah!”<br/><br/>You <em>try </em>to open the door, but... it doesn’t budge. Not even the handle is movable.<br/><br/>As you frantically fight Sans’ door handle, it suddenly gives and opens, <em>Papyrus </em>holding the handle from the other side of the door.<br/><br/>Holy shit.<br/><br/>Somehow, it’s more shocking than Sans’ appearance. It’s actually Papyrus.<br/><br/>Maybe because you’re slowly digesting this reality now.<br/><br/>“It— It’s you! Papyrus!!” You say in shock, jaw dropping. He’s towering over you.<br/><br/>Papyrus does a double take, “YOU KNOW ME, TOO???” He looks as shocked as you do.<br/><br/>A laugh bubbles inside you once again, thoughts pushed aside for the time being. Your mind cannot comprehend what’s happening, it’s too much. <em>You’re acting on auto pilot again</em>.<br/><br/>You grin wide, “Yes!! You’re Pa— The Great Papyrus!” you beam at him, almost jumping while saying it.<br/><br/>“I KNOW MY REPUTATION EXCEEDS ME, BUT, HOW DO YOU KNOW ME??”<br/><br/>“I know you because you’re the most fun character, ever!” You squeal, marveling at the details he has. He looks so cool! Especially the rendition between pixels and <em>actual physical live figure</em>.<br/><br/>Your throat and eyes sting a little bit.<br/><br/>He immediately shakes the surprise off his face, replacing it with a dazzling smile, “WHY, THANK YOU, HUMAN!” He says, putting his hand on his hip, “IT'S REALLY, <em>REALLY</em> STRANGE HEARING ABOUT MYSELF AS A... FICTIONAL PERSON, BUT...”<br/><br/>He paused, and stared at you for a second.<br/><br/>“ARE YOU OKAY?” His smile dropped, “YOU'RE SHAKING.”<br/><br/>You are?<br/><br/>... Yes, you are.<br/><br/>You're shaking. Why are you shaking?<br/><br/>Maybe it's because you're thrust in a completely different place without warning, that seems to be <em>one</em> way of shaking someone up.<br/><br/><em>ARE YOU OKAY?</em><br/><br/>The pressure in your throat increases, and your eyes water.<br/><br/>He’s not supposed to be real. This whole thing isn't supposed to be <em>real</em> but it feels real at the same time and—<br/><br/>Where is your <em>home?</em><br/><br/>You shut your mouth tight, trying to swallow back these feelings.<br/><br/>“HUMAN?” He says, sounding concerned. You're not looking at him— You can't, it feels <em>bad</em> looking at him.<br/><br/>Your jaw aches from the pressure you're putting, and your chest hurts for the lack of air, but you <em>can't open your mouth</em>.<br/><br/>Tears blur your eyes, and you try <em>so hard</em> not to let them drip, but... you couldn't. They fall, and you quickly cover your face, rubbing the tears as hard as you can, but they <em>won't stop</em> <em>dripping</em>, and you couldn't keep your stupid mouth shut and you take a breathe but it's <em>loud </em>and <em>shaky </em>and you keep embarrassing yourself, god, this isn't the place to break down—<br/><br/>Papyrus is telling you to breathe, that you don't have to hold your breath, but you <em>know</em> that you'll gasp if you open your mouth, and you can't, you don't want to gasp.<br/><br/>“WOULD YOU LIKE A GLASS OF WATER? TISSUES?” He asks, trying his best to remain calm.<br/><br/>You nod your head, and he sprints as quickly as he can downstairs, saying that he’ll be right back.<br/><br/>And then the front door opens, Sans entering the house...<br/><br/>And he immediately spots you with the door unlocked and wide open, and his eye-lights contract, before darting to look in the direction of the kitchen, where Papyrus is rummaging to get a glass of water.<br/><br/>“HELLO, SANS!” Papyrus says while running upstairs, Sans looking dumbfounded.<br/><br/>“papyrus??” Sans says in disbelief, shortcutting to the top of the stairs, “i thought you were on your patrol?”<br/><br/>Papyrus runs past Sans, and gives you the surprisingly still full glass of water.<br/><br/>By now you breathed a bit, and your crying lessened. You drink it slowly.<br/><br/>“WELL, SANS, I DID GO ON MY PATROL, YES! BUT I FINISHED NOT SO LONG AGO, ACTUALLY!” Papyrus says, turning to Sans.<br/><br/>“that can't be right, your patrol takes hours, doesn't it?” Sans asks, and glances at you standing next to Papyrus, before looking at his brother again, “did i...?” He muttered, looking a little disoriented and... tired.<br/><br/>Papyrus stares at Sans, looking heart-broken. “I AM ASSUMING YOU GOT... TAKEN AWAY WITH WORRY TO NOTICE THE TIME.” He shakes his head, then smiles, “WELL! IT HAS BEEN HOURS, YOU KNOW! I UNDERSTAND YOUR TERRIBLE SENSE OF TIME, BUT CLOCKS EXIST, BROTHER!”<br/><br/>And then Papyrus looks back at you, and his shoulders relax in relief.<br/><br/>“DO YOU FEEL ANY BETTER?” He asks.<br/><br/>You take a moment, and reply quietly, “Yeah, I do.”<br/><br/>Looking at the half empty glass of water in your hand... It does feel better. It feels less... well, messy and terrifying.<br/><br/>And...<br/><br/><em>ARE YOU OKAY?</em><br/><br/>“I’m okay. I don’t know exactly why I burst, but,” Ugh, your voice is so <em>watery</em>, “I’m okay now.” the last bit wasn’t as terrible, thank god.<br/><br/>...<br/><br/>Wait—<br/><br/>Wait a second—<br/><br/>Your mind is finally catching up to what he said when he first met you—<br/><br/>“Papyrus, you heard everything??”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p><a href="https://ahseeit.com//king-include/uploads/2019/03/thumb_51989313_647820765656565_1544974291722679905_n-3575320551.jpg">Here</a> and <a href="https://preview.redd.it/xpoy0lb4b7z41.jpg?auto=webp&amp;s=57af2ee00dfd3c296d992279cd8668585ff9ecb6">here</a> are memes that papyrus low-key relates to</p><p>sorry for the late update x'D</p><p>((i swear i have a big plot already planned with character development, hang on with me before it starts really going ok ;7;))</p><p>((also also-- surprisingly I can read the -slight- difference jump in skill between this chapter and the one before it? i like this chapter much better than ch1 and I'm a bit happy with how it turned out))</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>No set schedule. Will update sporadically.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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